Cape Point. A Pictorial.

I thought I would try something a little different this time and make a picture article. This should make for easy Sunday reading, as well as easy Sunday publishing!

Just follow the pictures and read the small captions!
I will follow this article up later on with a full article with the History etc of Cape Point!

This is a beach as seen from the Lighthouse walk that just caught my eye

The tourist information center at the bottom of the walk up to the light house

The Lighthouse from the bottom of the walk

A beautiful view from the lighthouse

That beach again, I can't begin to describe how beautiful it was

The lighthouse from another point of view

We couldn't figure out what the fishy smell was, until we saw these birds clinging to the mountain

A sheer drop as seen from one of the lookout points

This little outcrop looks like it came straight out of a movie!

Again, that beach....

This is on the other side of the point from that beach I took lots of photos of

That beach, again....

This picture is quite weird. It's a picture of a crack that plunges hundreds of kilometres downwards.

One of the outlooks at the lighthouse area.

This is just above that beach, with some people enjoying the view from over there

This is on that little outcrop (the one straight out of a movie) 

This Lighthouse sits right on the end of that outcrop. It's an extra warning for ships.

This piece of rock has been carved away from the mainland over thousands of years!

It took alot of convincing to stop me climbing over there and trying to

A boat as seen from the lighthouse

The same boat, just without the zoom.

These little black lizards are everywhere on the point! I will give you details on them on the follow up article

Another epic picture!

This can be found by the lighthouse, and gives you some sense of direction on this very confusing point.

The different heights of lookout points, as seen from the lighthouse

Information boards like this are scattered all over the Cape Point area

Another little lizard!

I will keep updating this post with more photos in the future!

Robben Island

Robben Island has a long history of being used as a place of punishment. In 1652 Jan van Riebeeck established the first permanent settlement by Europeans in South Africa in the area that today is the city of Cape Town. Van Riebeeck was sent by the Dutch East India Company, a company based in the Netherlands which traded goods between the East and Europe.

Map showing trade routes of the Dutch East India Company

Five years later, in 1657, he decided to use the island as a place of banishment, sending exiles and slaves to dig out the white stone found there. From then on, the various governors of the Cape found the Island very useful for getting rid of people they didn't want around.

The Lime Quarry on Robben Island

 In 1846 the prison was converted into a hospital. In 1855 part of the hospital became a colony for people with leprosy and lunatic asylum, and another part of it was converted back into a prison. The hospital closed in 1931 when the League of Nations (what became the United Nations) Health Organisation declared that lepers did not need to be kept so isolated from other people.

Nurses of Robben Island Hospital

During the Second World War (1939 to 1945) defences were built on the island to protect South Africa against Germany. These were later used as a navy training centre. The island was also used as a station for to refuel ships travelling around the Cape following the closure of the Suez Canal.

One of the many military installations on Robben Island

 In 1959 the island became a maximum security prison and between 1961 and 1991 over three thousand men were incarcerated here as political prisoners. The most famous of these was, of course, Nelson Mandela. He describes his time on Robben island in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Robben Island Prison Building

Robben Island is about seven miles (11 kilometres) off the coast of Cape Town. It has been declared a South African national monument and a museum was set up in September 1996. It has also become a World Heritage Site. Visitors can now take tours that show the different aspects of the island's troubled history but also its more beautiful side, its ecology and wildlife.

Here's a video on Robben Island!

Happy Watching!